Category Archives: Albany Medical Center

Is There a Distinction that Needs to be Drawn Between a Practicioner’s Playing the Role of Pastor or that of Chaplain?

I was a bit bemused by the persistence of the tendency to Bible-thump one’s way through any such discussion

I recently engaged several colleagues on the question of chaplaincy or pastoring. I was a bit bemused by the persistence of the tendency to Bible-thump one’s way through any such discussion, while advocating an interfaith approach as advanced by the adherents of the CPE agenda. I thought I’d share my contribution to the discussion.

It is my contention that we should not advance the notion of a “versus” or “as opposed to” when discussing chaplaincy or pastoring. While it is true that some traditions, the Hebrew and Islamic, for example, eschew the notion of “pastor” or “shepherd” for cultural or traditional, even ethical reasons, in the broader sense all chaplains are in fact “pastors,” while all pastors (in the conventional sense) are not necessarily “chaplains” (or critically speaking, even pastors!). In fact, I object in principal to the biased terminology we so frequently use in our vocations, “pastoral care” department, because it tends to be exclusive. I personally prefer spriritual care provider (although in my professional materials I do use pastoral care). Moreover, most people, even those in the vocation, tend to associate pastoral with pastors and thus with some sort of clergy or ordained service provider (usually with no questions asked and we all know about the profanation of ordination); that in itself is a misfortune for all concerned. But the much-touted CPE doesn’t do much to clarify the issues for interns or residents, and we still see chaplains “certified” by the self-proclaimed arbitors of chaplaincy who are just as ignorant after several years of “education” as they were before.

A case in point is taken from the scenario presented by the initiator of the discussion who describes walking into a Jewish patient’s room with a Christian clerical collar, which I characterized as benign “ignorance” but in reality was outright insensitive and would indicate that the “chaplain” in question did not do any initial preparation before launching out on rounds or visitations. I might fraternally suggest that in future, whether you are a chaplain or a pastoral care associate, to check the chart briefly or dialogue with the nurse assigned to that patient before you visit. The offending chaplain actually says that he was aware that the patient was dying and had no family, so it seems rather odd that the chaplain did not appreciate the patient’s faith tradition and, if it wasn’t in the chart, that he didn’t consult with the immediate caregiver (nurse or LPN).

I also questioned the fact that the visiting chaplain was aware that the man was “Jewish”. Being Jewish immediately identifies one as being associated with a certain cultural, socio-religious tradition, after all, one does not call one’s self “Jewish” except to identify one’s self as a Jew. So this also raises the question of whether the chaplain in question was indifferent to the possibility that this dying man might have welcomed a visit by a rabbi, or that the chaplain did not make or offer to make a referral. Such sensitivity may have been a great comfort to the man, who might have found great refuge in his tradition and prayers. So I identify a boundary issue in this behavior, too; an issue of knowing one’s limits.

This situation also sends up red flags in that it clearly indicates that the institution did not do a spiritual assessment of this patient, much less a spiritual evaluation or history, which also reveals a glaring ignorance of the now widely inaugurated JCAHO and HIPA scoring categories relating to patient spiritual care.

The scenario I describe above should be instructive to us all and I thank the so-called chaplain for the inadvertent teaching/learning moment he has provided.

Finally, in the dying process I don’t feel there’s a heck of a lot of “pastoring” left to be done, unless it’s for the survivors. In my experience, in end-of-life situations I am more of a presence and spiritual guide/companion. While that may arguably be part of pastoring in a general sense, I feel that the actual mission of pastoring contrasts in praxis with the mission of spiritual accompaniment at end-of-life or in an existential crisis.

It’s rather like the difference between evangelization and catechesis, if you have that in your tradition. One takes care of the basics and gets the seed started (evangelization), the other (catechesis) ends in the care and nurturing to harvest time.

Another colleague mentioned in a rather cliché fashion with which we are all familiar when listening to the CPE crowd, that CPE trains one to listen. I disagree with such responses such as “CPE “teaches” one to listen.” I’m not quite sure how that works but in my divinity training and three years of supervised pastoral formation, and my participation in and disappointment with a rather popular CPE program in a large trauma center in Albany, New York, which fell far short of even my minimum aspirations, I don’t think that people can be “taught to listen” they may listen, but they don’t listen deeply. I know that from experience the deep listening skill comes from deep within one’s self, once one is comfortable with one’s self, and can leave one’s self for the time it takes to absorb and process the patient’s narrative. It’s that kind of listening that might be part of qualifying an aspirant to be spiritual care provider but it certainly isn’t the be all and end all.

The serene face of the Buddha, his long wise curvaceous ears at once loving and open to the woes of the world: Compassionate.

Deep listening is the act of sinking into a serene quiet place, and awakening a receptive awareness of the other. By entering quiet and becoming aware of the other, we move out of and beyond our ego-driven chaos to become open to the divine messages within us and shared with us by the other. Imagine the irony here is that we so often complain of the pain of not having been heard, but we are so guilty ourselves of being deaf to, not hearing the innate wisdom from within ourselves and shared with us by others. When we learn to accept emptiness, when quiet, we instinctively trust in the guidance of sacred voices far more profoundly than what our bullying brains and the busy buzz of life would have us hear. And we listen, respond with silence.

In fact, having examined quite a number of CPE curricula and having developed continuing quality improvement curricula for the healthcare chaplaincy department, I find that the current CPE programs and their associated certification elements serve only to promote a burocratic and very branded form of “pastoral” care, and that branded product falls short of most suffering persons’ real needs. It’s the proprietary nature and standardization (viz. uniformization, homogenization) of the learning that deals the death blow to an appreciation (1) of the universal truths and values shared by all human beings, (2) the beauty in the diversity of traditions and how to appreciate and be enriched by a certain mutuality, (3) the possible pitfalls of an interfaith approach to faith traditions that may adhere very loyally to their dogmas. There are other reasons I could enumerate but regrettably (or fortunately for the readers) space is limited.

I think that an overwhelming majority, too, of CPE students come with excess baggage and too little self-death–I’ve observed interns, residents, even certified chaplains who have a great potential to do considerable damage…and do. The situation is not unlike seminary, you can do much to scrutinize, to form, to standardize but Whoa! when you turn them loose on the world, watch out! (A Roman Catholic diocesan priest, who also serves in the chancery tribunal, remarked ironically to me one day, “They’ll ordain anybody these days.” Which is probably true given the shortage of priests today.)

The so-called supervisors of the CPE programs almost invariable have their own biases and agendas, and these tend to impair good formation.
In some, not all instances, too, CPE programs have become “pay-to-work” programs in which minimally screened individuals, wet behind the ears and green, are turned loose on the floors to deal with sophisticated staff and human beings in existential crisis. I don’t feel that’s right. And I have also observed that interns are exposed to the same curriculum content for three or four years, and unless they have the academic predisposition to independently advance their armamentarium of experience through narrative and study, many don’t build their foundations. Some interns do not have theology or pastoral studies to help them through the necessary processing, and almost all have a depraved Western bias to their spirituality that tends to act as a speed bump when offering care to Non-western recipients. These programs tend to be “chaplain mills.” CPE does not fit the bill on its own to form professional, well-rounded spiritual care providers, but does excel in churning out multitudes of volunteers for greedy institutions. That may be one of the reasons it has survived this long.

On another level, some practitioners involved in the discussion advocated that the “Gospel” or, by extension, holy scriptures, has no firm place in chaplaincy. I do differ in that the fundamental ethics of the “Gospel” (not as understood principally by the evangelicals or fundamentalist among us) is a major part of chaplaincy. I cite particularly the beatitudes and the teaching of discipleship and servant leadership (chaplaincy is certainly not limited to the sick and dying but to the suffering generally). While I abhor the notion, and even more so the practice of proselytizing to captive audiences, and would hasten to emphasize that evangelization and catechization is not a fundamental role of the chaplain, ethics, discipleship, and servant leadership all play a special role in the myriad activities of the professional chaplain. (Note also that I do distinguish between the “professional chaplain”, the pastoral/spiritual care associate, and the visitor providing spiritual support.) To advocate that the truths and values espoused by the “Gospel”, the holy scriptures of any faith or spiritual tradition might have no place in chaplaincy is to advocate a position, I believe, of a chaplaincy practice devoid of ethics (and religion) (I do realize that this is a particularly “Christian” approach and my Judaic, Islamic and Buddhist colleagues may not necessarily agree with the religion-ethics statement, but I make the statement here somewhat loosely for convenience sake).

I’m not judging colleagues in chaplaincy or Clinical Pastoral Education too severely at all. In fact, I’m simply sharing my own observations and opinions based on personal experience. I am not a bit surprised when some readers tend to take these observations personally, as if they were meant to make an ad hominem stab at the straw[wo]men of CPE; I usually anticipate that persons in our line of work have a bit more self-awareness not to take every facially severe remark as a lancet thrust to the heart, however.

Rather than play an offended person’s role, perhaps we all would benefit by admitting that we may have learnt something about one’s self as through another’s eyes.

We Respond, We don’t React.

Our role is to humbly respond, not to knee-jerk react. After all, to paraphrase the prophet Martin Luther King, Jr.: ‘We are all wrapped in the same cloth…when we directly hurt another we indirectly hurt ourselves.” (I do hope I did that statement justice!). So, when one party to the conversation called such a response arrogant, and a failure to simply accept some responsibility in relationship to colleagues’ responses, I merely responded, “My point indeed. The mouth loves the feel of words.” Instead we minimize, rationalize and justify our behavior, making certain to protect one’s self. This particular correspondent insists that “our patients have thick enough skins to handle a collar.” My response was tantamount to the fact that I don’t think that we have any right to expect patients to have “thick skins.” Some practitioners in pastoral care seem to admit patients’ strengths but underestimate their sensitivity and vulnerability. Many of the patients I see have lost their thick skins and in fact are pretty bruised in terms of dignity, autonomy, fortitude, patience, etc. I see no reason to add another straw to the pile. And Yes! It’s not about us, it’s about patient-centered, family-focused, inter- and multi-disciplinary care.

When we adopt such an approach we appreciate that, whereas many of our colleagues practice their spiritual care ministry in acute care settings or in crisis settings, many colleagues may find themselves–particularly in the scenario of the long-term care setting–in the position of playing both the role of chaplain and pastor to some residents in those longer-term care facilities. Regrettably, many of these residents lived their lives unchurched or churched with infrequent interaction with their faith community; more regrettably, some faith communities have disappeared or simply no longer continue a ministry of visitation of the sick and homebound who were once part of their faith community. It’s in such situations that the chaplain may very well become the pastor, and have to function in both roles. I don’t feel that this should be a major stumbling block nor even a concern to the well-formed spiritual care provider, who is responding to a true call to spiritual care ministry.

While New York Governor Cuomo is eroding the rights and morals of American citizens and patriots in New York, his bedfellow in Washington, Obama, is promising rights to illegal immigrants!

The United States Congress Took More Than 90 Days to Pass Funding to Aid those Suffering from the Rampage of Hurricane Sandy…It Took Mere Days to Push Through the TARP Bailout funding for the Banks and Corporations Whose Dishonest Practices Caused the Recession We’re Still In. Where Do You Think this Government’s Priorities Are? Do You Really Think That King Obama or the Crooks in Congress Thought to Postpone Aid to Israel and Divert those Millions a Day to Americans Suffering the After-effects of Sandy? Where do WE, as citizens, actually figure in Big Brother’s worldview? Not only are the Coeymanaziseroding your rights but the unconstitutional, immoral criminality appears to be trickling down from the New York State Legislature and our Mafioso Governor, Andrew Cuomo! Read on, if you dare…

You may want to print out a copy of this article and send it to Governor Cuomo and to your elected legislators (state and federal) as an statement of protest! Send a link of this article to your relatives, friends, neighbors so that they also know the true facts. Thank you!

Closer to Home, Our Darling Governor Andrew Cuomo Has Been Trying to Collect Brownie Points by Harvesting Political Capital over the Bodies of Dead Children.

(Bad Move, Andy! Your Popularity Plummeted a Serious 15 Points!)

The Face of Indifferent Arrogance.Cuomo to Citizens & the Constitution:Go F*** Yourselves!

Andrew Cuomo and His DINOs (Democrats In Name Only; there’s not an iota of democracy in them) is a political whore and worse still, he’s turned prostitute: He’s selling principle for politics!

Here’s how:

It looks like Andy Cuomo can’t wait to become President (Yes! That’s Cuomo’s latest crazy wet dream.) before trashing the United States Constitution, Cuomo rushes the SAFE law through the rubber-stampers in the New York State Legislature, trashing the 2nd Amendment and the right to own firearms, using the imagery of dead children, not logic, to bypass any public input. IMPEACH CUOMOand give the DUMBASS RUBBER-STAMP LEGISLATORS the BOOT!

Of course the dimwit liberals and the pablum-puking bleeding hearts are going to say, “Great! Who needs guns anyway?” Of course, the police and law enforcement are just creaming their jeans at the thought of citizens without defense! But the real point is this: non-criminals obey the law and acquire guns and ammunition lawfully. It’s the criminals who will get all the guns and ammunition they need by whatever means necessary–and it’s the criminals who kill people! If the police and other law enforcement were doing their jobs they would be catching the criminals and seizing the illegal firearms. But no, that’s not in the plan, instead they’re out on the streets harassing and coercing generally law-abiding citizens and dragging them into court on…traffic violations and for smoking weed or some old-fashioned domestic ruckus. Just read the police blotters.

Forget the so-called War on Drugs–it was and continues to be a smoke screen–(they know where the crack houses are and where the dealers are but use them as bait for the dumbasses who drive thru the areas. After all, it’s the dumbasses who get stopped, it’s the dumbasses who have the cars to impound, the assets to seize, and it’s the dumbasses who will hire the defense lawyers at their own expense (the drug dealers don’t usually have cars, run like hell and get away, don’t have assets, and get public defenders!)).

Cuomo’s got a fish story for you…and I have a bridge to sell you.

And talking about traffic tickets, our darling NYS governor has yet another citizen-hating scheme to cover the state’s crazy spending:

Cuomo now is telling the Judicial Branch, the Courts, how to decide in traffic cases. In other words, Andrew Cuomo, the Executive Branch, has already commandeered the wussies in our State Legislature to dump the 2nd Amendment rights of New York citizens, and now is violating another well-established–or so we were taught to believe–concept of American freedom: the Separation of Powers! The Executive branch (governor, attorney general, district attorneys, police and other law enforcement), was to be separate from the Legislative and Judicial branches. This ensured the necessary “checks and balances.” But now, Cuomo is instructing judges not to plea bargain traffic violations such as speeding tickets, and wants to impose mandatory fines and force judges to collect money for the state. Of course, his office denies that this will cost local government anything because they will be free to impose surcharges, in addition. This is a direct violation of the doctrine of separation of powers and the principle of “checks and balances.” It’s a total smokescreen and is designed to squeeze even more money out of citizens for a totally bankrupt and corrupt government in Albany. IMPEACH CUOMO and the career politicians before they start drawing their outrageous pensions!

New York State’s Robbing You Of Your Rights!

We have previously published an interesting article on town and village courts and how ignorant the justices are and how primitive the justice (I shudder to use that term when referring to these kangaroo courts) meted out. Read Justice in Name Only: Town and Village Courts for a real eye-opening exposé of the town and village court system in New York.

I don’t know about you but I am offended by the government’s jumping over dollars to pick up pennies, and digging further into my pockets to offset shoddy management!

But the disgusting hypocrisy and immoral deceit doesn’t stop there, Cuomo has plans for the most despicable practices in the state: abortion!

But First Let’s Do A Little Quiz…

Quiz Question: Which of the above are children?

Answer: All of them are, or were, before the abortionist got to them!

Putting the murder of children in some perspective, let’s look at some real statistics and leave the politics and the emotional flooding out of the picture, just for a moment. Consider these numbers:

Ceaselessly in the news and on the politicians’ lips: 20 children killed in Newtown, CT (and 6 adults). But is that in perspective?

Now compare that with:United States Abortion Statistics54,559,615 abortions 1973–2011

Reported abortions in the United States, by year

The Alan Guttmacher Institute (a special affiliate to Planned Parenthood), which actively collects the abortion data directly from providers. All numbers reported are voluntary; there are no laws requiring abortionists to report to any national agency the numbers of abortions they perform. 2009-2011 are estimates of 1,212,400 annually.

In the United States in 2011 more than 1,200,000(that’s one milliontwo hundred thousand) abortions were reported.

Need some more figures on abortion? We’ll be happy to satisfy your curiosity:

Americans’ views concerning abortion:

79% do not support the current abortion-on-demand policy, saying abortion should be legal only in some circumstances (68%), or illegal in all circumstances (11%). (Marist Poll, December 2011)

Those are some mightily compelling reasons to kill a child, wouldn’t you agree?

And I’d like to repeat: Those are the reported, official figures. The Chicago Tribune did a study and found some very scary facts:

“A great many abortions go unreported. In a recent report, a state system for monitoring abortions in Illinois reports that as many as 17,000 of the procedures may go unreported each year, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Tribune newspaper has released the details of a new investigative report revealing the number of abortions in the state has been massively underreported. Those numbers include six women who have died from botched abortions and 4,000 who were injured.”

“State abortion records full of gaps. Thousands of procedures not reported to health department. ”

(Source: June 16, 2011 by Megan Twohey, Chicago Tribune. The Tribune found: “State regulators have documented between 7,000 and 17,000 fewer abortions a year than a national research group found in Illinois.”)

The dismal statistics for New York, not New York state, New York City read like science fiction:

“2009 statistics for abortions in New York City found that “87,273 abortions in that year, meaning that 41 percent of all pregnancies that didn’t end in miscarriage were ended by abortions,” Lipsky explains. “In some ZIP codes and among African-Americans, the abortion rate reaches a ghastly 60 percent.

[In that same report: “For every 1,000 African-American babies born in the city that year, 1,448 were aborted. To the publication of these numbers the mayor [Michael Bloomberg] stood mute.” Does this sound like ethnic cleansing to you?]

So, my point is this: Looking at what the Gutterman Institute study found as the reasons women have abortion and the official abortion figures for 2011, and comparing those figures (for example, 1,200,000+ abortions in 2011) with the firearm homicide figures for the same period (11,078 homicides) and the figures for motor vehicle deaths (33,687) and allfirearm deaths (31,672), simple reasoning would say that if we proactively ban or want to control firearms because of the deaths they cause, we should be just as willing to ban or increase control over motor vehicles! After all, motor vehicle deaths in 2011 exceeded all deaths caused by firearms (self-inflicted, murder, accidents). And what is the next step? Background checks for new car purchases? Registration of gas purchases?

And, when you compare all deaths by injury in the US in 2011 (180,811) with the number of reported deaths by intentional abortion (killing the child) in that same period (1,200,000+ children), you really have to ask yourselves: “What is the big stink about 20 children being killed in Newtown, CT, and is it really fair to misuse that event politically to unlawfully deprive citizens of a constitutionally granted right?”

I am not a callous animal and I’m not trying to minimize the moral wrong or emotional effects of the Newtown, CT, tragedy. I empathize with those parents and the community just as much as I do with Iraqi, Afganistani, Egyptian, Mexican victims of insanity and crime. But the absolute and statistical numbers speak louder than I could ever attempt to do!

And so, we make a full circle back to deprivation of real rights and the interference of mindless criminal politicians to misuse events for their own agendas.

The reality is this: We have crazies on the streets because we threw them all out of the asylums a couple of decades ago. We have crazies on the streets because we send immature young men off to fight illicit oil wars and then abandon them when they come home nutz and with PTSD. We have crazies on the street because we elect them and put them in powerful positions and not in padded cells!

Your Rights Crying Out for Liberty!

It’s the crazies in government who are trying to tell us thinking, rational citizens that it’s not the inability of law enforcement to find and seize illegal firearms in the hands of gangs and criminals, nor the inability of law enforcement to stop the trafficking of ammunition for those illegal firearms, nor the inability of law enforcement to stop the influx of illegal weapons into this country…what they’re telling us is that those citizens who would obey the law anyway and are doing so right now, it’s those citizens who will be subjected to more intense scrutiny and tougher regulation! Go figure!

In fact, official government statistics collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the weekly Mortality and MobidityWeekly Report (August 6, 2010 / 59(30);957) actually show a decline in firearm deaths in the period of 1979-2007!

The figure above shows death rates for the three leading causes of injury death in the United States during 1979-2007. In 2007, the three leading causes of injury deaths in the United States were motor vehicle traffic, poisoning, and firearms. The age-adjusted death rate for poisoning more than doubled from 1979 to 2007, in contrast to the age-adjusted death rates for motor vehicle traffic and firearms, which decreased during this period. From 2006 to 2007, the age-adjusted poisoning death rate increased 6%, whereas the motor vehicle traffic death rate decreased 4%, and the firearms death rate did not change.

But all the political rhetoric and misinformation, and the misuse of a tragedy to push through more controls over citizens is totally unjustifiable given the scientific information and the government’s own numbers! If you want to increase control over firearms the government will logically have to do the same for automobiles, since they kill more people every year than firearms!

A traditional business facing extinction?

It’s also those crazies in government who are now telling our judges, as useless as most of them are, how to judge cases, how to interpret the law! Why? Because Mr Andrew Cuomo thinks that they are not sending enough fine-money to Albany and keeping too much for the local municipalities. So Cuomo is going to turn around and legislate how the judges decide your next traffic ticket and deprive you of your opportunity for justice, the common plea bargain. Do you like it so far?

So we’re all appalled by the deaths caused in single incidents by single assailants killing multiple people. Are we just as appalled by the deaths by automobile or poisonings? Don’t they get any attention? OK. Every year we kill more than 1,200,000 children but do it legally. It’s done by medical doctors who make a quick buck by murdering babies. If you don’t believe that they are murdering babies, let me redirect your attention to a very informative page that tells you a little about the stages of the developing child’s life in the womb, before some licentious bitch with a sorry excuse has some murderer in a white coat, dismember it, and the state (= YOU) pays for it. Are you pleased with yourself? Click here to read the Horror of Abortion.

Neo-Hitler Cuomo

What’s even worse is that this Democrat government wants you to continue paying for this mass murder and that satan Andrew Cuomo and that devil Obama want to make it even easier to kill even full-term infants! But Cuomo isn’t anyone’s fool, he planned to pander the women’s vote by packaging the abortion rights measure in a women’s rights package that included proposals to assure equal pay, workplace rights, and bills combating abuse against women. At this point, Cuomo has tied all the measures together, requiring the Legislature to approve all or none of the proposals.

Hitler, using the same gestures, advocated a pure race by abortions, too!

Far from advocating any lunatic politician in Albany, I would like to share a statement by Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos says the proposal is just wrong. Skelos, who runs the majority with six independent Democrats, calls Cuomo’s proposal an extreme measure from the radical left. Skelos also says the change isn’t needed in New York, where abortion is legal, paid for by Medicaid, and requires no parental notification. I repeat: in New York abortion is legal, it is paid for by Medicaid, and requires no parental consent. Hell, the government takes care of it all for you!

You may want to read an article I wrote on another blog, Opinion: Abortion Issues. As usual, it’s an in-your-face, wipe-your-nose-in-it factual statement.

And so, loyal readers, whether you agree with me or not, you do have to admit that we have some very weird and bizarre ways of thinking in order to make the world fit our lunacy. Do you feel any smarter now? Do you feel any differently now? Please say Yes!

But let me leave you with one very serious thought: The longer you stay silent, the longer you let the crazies in Albany and Washington, or even the crazies in the village or town hall, play with your rights, the more blood of innocents will be on your hands.

Does this mean satan is reconciled to God?What does this image do for RC credibility? Absolutely zilch, nada!(In the days of credibility he would have been burned at the stake!)The Editor

So, Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, are you still welcoming this hypocrite monster Cuomo to your liturgies, are you still allowing this demon to receive the sacraments alongside the pious faithful? How dare you! With the politics and hypocrisy, the pandering and the double-talk, is it any wonder that, like Cuomo’s approval ratings, you’re hemorrhaging numbers, too?!? And don’t smirk, Protestants, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Jews; you’re all just as bad, but less visible!

Is this the real TRUTH?

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I Guarantee You will Remember the Parable of the Wooden Bowl Tomorrow, a Week from Now, a Month from Now, a Year from Now.

Parables have since time immemorial taught us thru the commonplace, and have sometimes changed us in surprising ways. And as we move towards a new year, what better time to reflect on who and what we are. Perhaps this gift of the parable of the Wooden Bowl may give us some pause, and provide a scintilla of the gift of Wisdom.

The Wooden Bowl

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year-old grandson.

The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered.

The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. ‘We must do something about father,’ said the son. ‘I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.’

So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner.

There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.

When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence.

One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, ‘What are you making?’ Just as sweetly, the boy responded, ‘Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up. ‘ The four-year-old smiled and went back to work…

The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.

That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

We all need to reflect. I’ve learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and there is always the hope that it will be better tomorrow.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles just four things: a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I’ve learned that having a good ‘living’ is not the same thing as having a good ‘life..’

I’ve learned that every mistake gives you a second chance to learn.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back sometimes.

I’ve learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you But, if you focus on the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you. When you practice generosity, compassion, humility you’ve already given up the toxins that poison happiness.

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart and mind, I usually make the right decision.

I’ve learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone.

People love that human touch — holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back, or simply the touch of another’s appreciation and kind glance.

I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn; I’ve learned that for all I’ve learned I still know so very little.

I’ve learned that you should reflect on this parable of the wooden bowl, and practice compassion, non-judgmental presence, and unconditional love.

I’ve learned that Wisdom does not come from all the books I’ve read or the degrees I’ve received; it comes from sharing with a frail old person from a wooden bowl.

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. (Mark 9: 38-41)

It would seem that Ms Kate Blain, editor of the Evangelistof the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, and her mentors are shooting themselves in the foot! Not ony is Ms Blainand her mentors exemplifying and incarnating all the worst street wisdom about Roman Catholics, and playing into the hands of their worst detractors, but they are also turning their backs to the best of the Christian Tradition in terms of encouraging good works and works of mercy and charity. Judging from Ms Kate Blain’sresponse, if it is truly the position of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, no one but those associated with a Roman Catholic parish or receiving the support (just what the nature of the support should be is unclear) are licitly or legitimately practicing a ministry in pastoral or spiritual care to the suffering. What a pile of crapola!

So, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany’s Evangelist refuses to publish an advertisement because the advertiser is “not working through any parish or with the support of the Albany Diocese,” according to Ms Kate Blain, editor of the Evangelist.
Always the curious one, I thought something was very fishy with this whole affair and so I picked up an Evangelist to check out some of the ads that are being run in the rag. Here’s just a sample:

Yes, we thought you’d be a bit surprised., and we’re none the wiser for the effort. There’s no rhyme or reason behind these advertisements, they cover a wide range of services unrelated to a parish and certainly don’t need diocesan support. In fact, the ads are supporting the diocese to some extent.

So we have to look elsewhere for an explanation why an advertisement for genuine and much-needed services would be canned by the Evangelist.

A big question looms large in this consideration: Is someone at our sacred and holy Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Pastoral Center playing a career assassination game? Are there personal or political motives behind the refusal. Does someone or several of our loving, charitable, good Christians at the Pastoral Center have an axe to grind with regard to the advertiser. It wouldn’t be the first time that some Church functionary saboutaged the work of ministry for personal reasons.Is this a form of cowardly punishment or retribution? But just the thought of the bad press, the damage to an already suffering image, the civil consequences that such stupid misconduct will entail is chilling.

This raises a number of troubling contradictions in this diocese, including but not limited to:

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany sends its deacon candidates to a local secular hospital that epouses explicitly interfaith pastoral care to patients, and whose manager is of the Calvinist tradition, apparently loathes his own denomination (RCA, according to the AMC pastoral care manager, the “deformed” Church of America), and has no great love for Catholics, unless they’re female, “disgruntled””, outspoken and dissenting. Two Roman Catholic priests are on the hospital’s pastoral care team and paid by the RC diocese of Albany, and I have personally witnessed some very anti-Catholic and abusive treatment of those two clerics at the hands of some non-Catholics. Knowing the situation at the hospital and in the Pastoral Care department there, one wonders what the rationale is behind the diocesesan practice of sending deacon candidates to train there if interfait pastoral care is not supported by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

While I was completeing my master of divinity degree at the Roman Catholic school of theology and divinity supported by the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Albany (Bsp Howard Hubbard) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester (Bsp Matthew Clark) and most recently in Syracuse, under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, my pastoral formation supervisor encouraged me to participate in the clinical pastoral education (CPE) program at Albany Medical Center, which I did. In terms of experience it was incredibly edifying, that is, in terms of the direct clinical experience on the floors. The personal experience with the supevisor and the peer experience was frustrating to say the very least. It was not the place for a traditional or conservative Roman Catholic or one with weak faith or one with no guts. I was surrounded by feminazis, Calvinists, and sociopathic “disgruntled” female Roman Catholics/Episcopalians; a male Catholic was chum in shark-infested waters = I didn’t have the chance of a snowball in hell unless I put up a very strong front, and I stood by my faith, my Tradition, and my ethics. So, if the Roman Catholic school of theology and ministry sends its students to participate in the interfaith program at Albany Medical Center, knowing the the program is promoting the interfaith model of pastoral care, how is it reasonable that the editor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany’s newspaper, Kate Blain, refuses to run an advertisement on interfaith pastoral care?

The Ultimate Perversion!Female Gay Bishop!How Close are We?

The very school of theology and ministry I attended and which awarded me the master of divinity degree is a former Roman Catholic seminary college that went Guess what!Interfaith in order to survive. Right in the middle of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Pastoral Center we now find Roman Catholics sitting next to Baptists, Calvinists, Episcopalians reciprocally revealing their ignorance. Now the Protestants, Jews and Calvinists can experience first-hand the renowned infighting that goes on among Roman Catholics. They can, along with the now appalled traditional and conservative Catholics, experience the liberal priests and female religious dissenting, criticizing their Church, and hear the eunichs in the group pander to the instructors and to the wannabe women priests [and bishops]. Typical ambiguous and ambivalent American attitude, typical American “be politically correct or be shunned”, “How dare you have such an opinion!?!” type of Me First! exchange. But it’s all in the interest of unity, of ecumenism, of interfaith dialogue, of …or is it revenues?

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany appears to support the interfaith pastoral care effort…or does it?

(There are a number of discrepancies in the pastoral formation programs both in the diocese but most particularly at St Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry that require review and correction. Those discrepancies have nothing whatsoever to do with the supervisor/director of the program itself but the way the students’ projects are selected and executed leaves a great deal to be desired. But this is something that we shall take up with the accrediting body itself.)

The Roman Catholic Church has spent a great deal of ink writing about the importance of care of the suffering, the sick, and the dying but it seems that much of what is written and prmulgated is contradictory in one respect or another. Or, in its slavish dedication to the principle of subsidiarity, the Church has delegated much of its authority to self-serving, poorly catechized managers and underlings. The Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany lacks overall leadership, although it is figuratively headed by a brilliant saint of a man, somewhere along the line the minions and the satans have usurped power over their domains and the Center has turned into a collection of feifdoms, the Evangelistobviously being one of them.

Our beloved bishop Howard Hubbard(RC Diocese of Albany) and his brother bishop Matthew Clark(RC Diocese of Rochester) are both nearing retirement and their personal pastoral ministries have been phenomenal in terms of goodness, charity, brilliance, but their legacies will be remembered for their excess liberalism. The buzz is that at the Albany Diocese the greatest fear is that a conservative bishop will succeed Hubbard. If this happens, say Bye! to the fiefdoms, the self-serving monopolies and nepotism, and to the women religious who have pretty much taken over running the place.

It’s not the Holy Spirit that moves the Roman Catholic Diocese at Albany, it’s the cliques. And it’s high time the Diocese and the departments and parishes were returned to the Church, to be run in accordance not with liberal agendasbut with the Roman Catholic Tradition and the Magisterium. It’s time Christian kerygmabecomes the modus operandi and not personal agendas or the like. The idiotic grins are a poor cover-up for the envy, the paranoia, the anxiety, the ambition beneath. How has it reached such a point, I have to ask?

(It’s not just in Albany, either. I spent years nurturing relationships in a local Eastern rite parish, St Ann Maronite Catholic parish in Troy. For more than a decade I was part of the parish life, grew to become very close to its former pastor and its parishoners. The pastor was transferred and I asked to do a year of my pastoral formation with the new priest who was very young, from Lebanon, and not long in the USA. The young priest had a poor command of English, very little parish experience (about 6 months unter the supervision of a senior priest down south), couldn’t preach to save his own soul, and was culturally inept (the Church in the Middle East is incredibly different in Traditions, organization, and in its participation in politics). The wet-behind-the-ears monk thought he knew everything, though, except integrity, honesty, humility, and inclusiveness. He openly spoke hatefully of Muslims with parishoners and was inauthentic. I confronted him, he ran to his bishop, his bishop ran to my bishop, this bishop supported him, my bishop asked me to cool it. That’s the way it goes: the bishops support their priests regardless of the damage. I disappeared and was demonized. C’est la vie, c’est la guerre. But it shouldn’t have to be that way and wouldn’t be that way if the bishops would be bishops and stop pussyfooting around.)

According to the Chinese, “The fish rots from the head down.” Oh! How true! Look around you.

So, back to the Evangelist and editor Ms Kate Blain, now making policy for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. What say ye, bishops?!?

“Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” (Mark 9: 38-41) Is that really so? Are we still preaching this (I know I am).

What’s important here? The fact that one operates out of a parish or the fact that one has the “support of the diocese” ( read that as “has not invoked the perfidy of someone with some power at the diocesan offices”). Who is this Kate Blainto make the determination that one does not have the support of the diocese. And if that is true, why does the Roman Catholic Diocese not support qualified spiritual care regardless of company or special-interest connections.

I’d be happy to discuss this dilemma with anyone from the Pastoral Center. Just give me a time and a date. According to Saint Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministrywhich awarded me the “gold standard” professional degree in pastoral and theological studies, the Magister Divinitatis, which I received from the hand of bishop Matthew Clark and the co-authentication of bishop Howard Hubbard, I should be qualified to engage in such a debate…and to provide qualified pastoral and spiritual care regardless of the faith or Tradition of the recipient.

But there’s still the question of why the editor of the Evangelist refuses to run my ad that is in full accord with express Church doctrine and policy, with the explicit teachings, and with the promulgations of the USCCB? Do we have female bishops in the RC Church already? Yes. But not officially, it seems.

Please share your thoughts on this subject matter. And stay tuned for the next installment: a discussion of Church teachings on the care of the suffering, sick, and dying (and how it’s falling on it’s egg-stained face).

The Editor of the Evangelist, a Publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, and a Publication that Advertises a Wide Variety of Goods and Services, Recently Refused to Publish An Ad for An Interfaith Chaplain.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
— Matthew 25:35-36

A New Scandal Brewing?

With Attitudes Like Albany’s,The Church Will Soon Look Like This!Where are the Leaders?!?

The Evangelist, having received the display ad and having made changes to the ad several times, accepted the ad and accepted payment for the ad. The next day, the advertiser received an e-mail from the editor stating:

“We have become aware that you are not working through any parish or with the support of the Albany Diocese. Therefore, we are unable to accept your Compassionate Care Associates advertisement. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Not only is this action by a minor employee of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany clearly discriminating, it flies in the face of pretty much everything the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has been allegedly supporting (at least on the surface) in terms of interfaith, ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, ministry, etc. etc. Do we smell rotten hypocrisy at work.

Or can it be that the Diocese is playing dirty pool? It can’t provide adequate ministers to the sick and dying so no one is going to do so.

And what about the negative PR? What does this action broadcast about the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and its love of all creation, its welcoming of all people, its embrace of all things serving the common good?

The Response is Deplorably Ignorant

Since we are here considering the response of an organ of the Roman Catholic Church as represented in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York, it is appropriate to cite some of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the magisterium, which expressly embraces with a sense of anticipation and hope the commitment to ecumenism and interfaith dialogue as a duty of human conscience, but especially the Christian conscience, in relationship enlightened by faith and guided by love, the man Jesus the divine Christ himself, in his Passion, prayed “that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21). This unity, which the Divine has bestowed on his people and on creation overall, and in which I believe the Divine will is intended to embrace all people and all creation, is not just a Divine afterthought or a creaturely wishful thinking, but stands at the very heart of the Christ’s mission. It is heterodoxy to teach that this commitment, this duty, this vision of unity is some secondary attribute of a select community of disciples. Rather, I would assert, it belongs to the very essence of creation. (cf Pope John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, May 25, 1995).

While it is not my intention to proselytize or to be disrespectful of non-Christian traditions when I figuratively or metaphorically use the name “the Christ”, I sincerely believe that our response to persons in crisis, suffering, dying must be such that we are willing and able to see the “Christ” in them and they in turn are able to encounter the “Christ” in us. Although many of us undoubtedly discover this ideally reciprocal response in the context of a religious or spiritual or faith tradition, even those without “faith” can be guided, supported to look beyond their own suffering to see the human dignity and goodness of those who suffer, and of those who minister to the suffering.

The “Christ” should be read here as the imago Dei (the image of the Divine Creator) not just the socio-political affiliation with a company club, a parish. Good works are good works, discipleship is discipleship, charity is charity, koinonia is koinonia regardless of your ‘company’ affiliation. We are all called to compassion and responsibility, unity, and those of us called to a ministry of pastoral, spiritual, emotional care of the suffering cannot and will not be deterred by the ignorant.

Hence, Compassionate Interfaith Pastoral Care, then the Evangelization or Catechesis, if Appropriate and Desired. The Church as Historically and Typically Approached this Ass-end Backwards!

Pope Paul VI famously quipped, «Da qualche fessura sia entrato il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio». (“Satan’s smoke has made its way into the temple of God through some crack.”) —Pope Paul VI, 1972. How true! But the traditionalists and conservatives feeling that the mainstream Church was falling into decline had no idea of how far afield the Roman Church had actually strayed. These fundamentalists believed they knew what that smoke might be and how they planned to halt its spread. From conservatives and their steadfast moral militancy, to separatists and their belief in the need for alternative communities, to Marianists and their tenets of mystical prophecy, the the obstreperous female religious and their disobedience and promotion of an almost heretical theofeminism—but the actual Satan was a special insidious liberalism and it’s that liberal laxity that is costing the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese dearly in terms of credibility and faithful. The Diocese lacks good leaders but has an abundance of negative defensive placeholders. But more on that later. The place is getting too smokey now.

Stay tuned for a continuation of this investigation on what the Roman Catholic Church says and what he Roman Catholic Church does, especially through its lay minions, affects all of us at large in our ministries.

We have given the editor until Monday, December 2, 2012, to organize her defense. On December 3, we’ll bring out the big guns. Let the games begin!

Singing and beautiful music have provided an interface with the heights and depths of human emotion since time immemorial. However, where such are formative of the liturgy, their higher purpose is that of giving glory to God in worship which, inevitably, eclipses the noble but limited destiny fulfilled by a primary desire for polished performance. Since it is oriented towards God, above all, the musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater than that of any other art. The main reason for this is that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of solemn liturgy (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] 1156 and Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC] 112). The Old Covenant lay store, not only by psalms and hymns that remain central in Jewish and Christian liturgy, but by the different musical and symbolic registers of various musical instruments (CCC 1156). From a modern perspective, it is hard to establish what all of the instruments were, though a sense of their symphony can be absorbed by our appreciation of the versatility of a pipe organ which announces, so ably, the distinctive atmospheres of the liturgical year. One should never lose sight of the appeal of SC 120 in support of the particular esteem that should be afforded the pipe organ even when other instruments are permitted in the liturgy on the basis that they are suitable for sacred use.

Could this be happening here, in your backyard? Parent! Beware! Be informed about state and federal school programs (Don’t ask Matt Miller, though!) Schools Infringing on Parents’ Rights, and Doing It Secretly

In an article published in Zenit by Rebecca Oas, PhD (Washington, D.C., April18, 2012),

she reports that in 2010, an article appeared in the UK newspaper The Telegraph reacting to a proposal to cut government funding for a certain beverage in schools. The author made the argument that the drink might be “doing more harm than good” and cited “negative side effects,” while noting that his viewpoint was heard relatively rarely in comparison to the large industry which vigorously promoted its product through advertising and with the support of government subsidies. The substance in question was milk, which would seem on the surface to be more innocuous than those fearsome beverages that have also come under fire for being available in schools in recent years, soft drinks.

While the role of government in regulating access to these beverages in schools has varied from place to place, it can’t be disputed that a key factor influencing school policies is the input of parents.

Wotz next? Study hall cocktails laced with the pill?

A 2005 survey found that parents of adolescents had strong opinions regarding nutrition in schools, and urged health professionals in school settings to work with parents in promoting good nutrition in schools. While it may not be practical or even possible for a parent to monitor everything a child consumes while at school, this fact reflects only that substances like soft drinks are widely available, and not subject to restrictions under the law. There’s no excuse for parents are not expressly prohibited from knowing their children’s dietary habits by not being aware of what goes on in schools, neither the school or the government has any right to prohibit a parent’s demand for information.

But here’s the real shocker: Dr Oas writes, “However, while parents’ input may be welcomed with regard to students’ intake of sugar, substances available only by prescription are being distributed to students at school-based clinics without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Recent reports from both the US and the UK reveal that students are receiving oral and implanted contraceptives while on school property, through government-funded initiatives.”

Is this happening at school?

A story aired on National Public Radio in March, discussing a provision of the new health care law that increases funding for school-based health centers, which exist to treat sick students, but which are also widely used to distribute condoms and oral contraceptives to students. The story focused on one such clinic located in California, where, according to state law, students older than 12 years of age can legally obtain prescribed contraceptives without their parents’ knowledge or permission. [Editor’s Note: 21 states explicitly allow minors to give consent to contraceptive services, meaning that parental consent, and consequently, knowledge, is not required.] This reflects an international trend. [For school implanation of contraceptives, please see the entire article.] Just as in the US, the contraception initiative in the UK was supported by a government effort to reduce teenage pregnancy.

These published news stories point to another key issue: the duties of parents and the larger society toward children, including older minors still under their parents’ legal guardianship.

It is worthwhile to note that the controversy regarding milk distribution in schools was in reference to children five and under, and the distribution of contraceptives is occurring among minors 13 and older. Clearly, society recognizes that personal responsibility increases as a child becomes more capable of making his or her own decisions, as evidenced by the fact that minors can be held liable for criminal activity. In the US, a parent or guardian must not only give consent, but must physically accompany a minor under 17 who wishes to go to a movie with a “Restricted” rating. It would seem that government regulations are frequently willing to defer to the wishes of parents with regard to the health and well-being of their children – except where their reproductive capability is concerned.

Nevertheless, parents who entrust their children to educational institutions rightly have concerns regarding their children’s exposure and access to many things on school grounds, from substances such as soft drinks or contraceptive pills to controversial curricula, to the influence of questionable teachers. That this access frequently occurs without the parents’ knowledge and is disturbing to many informed parents, but that such information is deliberately being kept from them constitutes a dangerous shift in the role of the parent and the local, state, and federal institutions making decisions relating to children in schools “in safeguarding the well-being of those who are not yet legally adults.”

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